Dual Boot-Please help

[Circle]

I'd like to set up my computer to dual boot windows XP & Linux. I currently have XP operating system installed on my laptop. How can I get my computer to dual boot both systems? Where can I download Linux? Please help me.

 

[mikesgroovin]

You can find many links to different Linux distrubutions by running google searches. Try going to Linux.org first and read about different versions and which on might be right for your needs. After you find one, for example, Fedora Core 1. This isn't the most fabulous Linux OS around, but it's good for beginners. Just download the images, burn the CDs and install the OS. Make sure that you have made 2 unformatted partitions on your hard drive (if you are going to share an XP drive.) Then the installation will walk you through formatting the partitions, and installing the OS. If you have installed Linux AFTER Windows, then it will formulate a dual boot for you.

 

[Circle]

Thanks for the info. You've mentioned I need unformatted partition. How can I do that? What does that exactly mean? Since I'm a beginner, I don't really know.

 

[mikesgroovin]

Well, do you have 1 hard drive? If you just have one, how big is it? You'll need to change the size of the C: partition to allow more partitions to be added. You can use XP's logical disk manager to an extent, but you aren't going to be able to change the size of the C: partition with this utility. I'd recommend Partition Magic from PowerQuest.

 

[Circle]

Yes, I have only 1 hard drive C: 40GB. Available space: 3GB. So I have to buy Partition Magic to partition my C drive?

BTW, why do have to burn the iso files to CD? Is there anyway I can install directly by downloading to & running from C?